Anonymous

11.10.12

Petraeus Link to ‘Times’ Letter?

Karen Bleier / AFP / Getty Images

After news broke of Gen. David Petraeus's resignation from the CIA following an extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell, newshounds were quick to investigate past stories pointing to the revelation—and found a letter written to The Ethicist column published in The New York Times on July 13. In it, an anonymous man, now speculated to be Broadwell's husband, sought advice on whether to expose his wife's affair with a "government executive" whose work "is seen worldwide as a demonstration of American leadership.” Ethicist columnist Chuck Klosterman advises the letter-writer to not to “expose the relationship in any public way,” but also says somewhat tellingly he “halfway suspects” the letter-writer hoped the people involved in the affair would read it—and proclaims “that’s not ethical either.” David Carr tweeted late Saturday that the ethicist column was "NOT about the Petraeus affair."